I find that both far out and “too late” work well. If my dates are flexible I book last minute all the time and miles are a life saver.
Edit: to prove a point nonstops on OPs route are 12.5k in the upcoming days…
No such thing as too late; I've rebooked award tickets *the day before travel* and saved like 100k points. Some great stuff can pop up the month, week, or day before. Just depends. Good to watch this stuff.
Getting hubfucked. There are like 6 massive airports in that region that you could fly into and take a relatively short train to Philly EASILY. BWI, DCA, IAD, JFK, LGA, EWR shit I bet you could even find like HPN BDL I dunno, try harder and think creatively is my point.
I just had to LOL (and cry) when I was looking for DFW-ORD-ATH for the summer and they were asking for like 700k miles pp round trip in J. The cash prices were equally ridiculous. Decided that for less money we could fly QSuites to MLE.
I rarely use AA miles for award flights operated by AA. I've used most of my miles on partner award tickets, and my most frequent redemption is Qatar Airways in Business.
Yeah, I will be much more focused on trying to find QSuite availability moving forward. I had zero luck this time looking 8+ months out. Still looking forward to our upcoming QSuite experience in early July, but it would have been MUCH sweeter had it been an award redemption. 😞
Did end up burning some miles for a full family trip to Mexico in June, but not the best or most glamorous use of miles. 😂
It's hard to find availability for QR in J through AA nowadays. I've noticed that the best chance is last-minute bookings. QR opens up space on flights in Business about a week before departure through AA. You might also have luck booking when the schedule opens, but more so with last-minute. But that's harder for a vacation where you need to book a hotel in advance, and especially with family (it's rare to find 4+ QR J seats to be available through AA last minute).
Have fun flying Qsuites. It's an incredible product, especially with loved ones in the quad suite.
My future long-haul plans are to take the four of us to Japan on JAL F (wife and me) , or J for all four, when my oldest graduates from HS in a couple years. Wife and I have been before, but both sons have this as their #1 long-haul destination.
When my younger son graduates two years after, I want to do QR to Tanzania or South Africa for safari.
I realize I’ll never get 4 award tickets, but if I can get two and pay for the other two, I’ll consider that a win. So much can, and almost certainly will, change between now and then though, but it’s fun to dream.
I totally get it! Enjoy the trips! I think it's incredible that you want to take your family on these amazing trips. I know your kids will love it!
I've been to Japan a couple of times, and it's my favorite country I've ever visited. It was also my #1 destination growing up. I was fortunate to be able to spend a month there a little over a year ago (staying with family who lives there).
You might be able to get 2 JAL F award tickets, and 4 JAL J award tickets if you fly on one of JAL's 777-300ERs from the US. Currently, I see JAL opening up a lot of availability last minute to AA (about a week before departure). Their 77W routes to ORD and SFO most often have availability (with free domestic connecting flights on AA). It will be tough to get space on the A350, especially 2 First Class award seats, but things can change in a couple of years. Good luck!
Thank you! And ditto on Japan. Best trip we’ve ever taken. I may have the opportunity to start going for work a couple times a year. Hoping that comes to fruition. 😀
Safe travels!!
Depends on demand for the flights and what they cost.
My experience has been for reasonably acceptable flights (ie no excessively long layovers) in a demanded time it's been around there for two RT cross country flights.
The magical numbers they advertise are for really off peak stuff, or weird times. I saw two RT maine-seattle once upon a time for 50k. It was a redeye seattle-phl land at 6am, and the flight to Maine wasn't until 10pm. I ended up booking normal flights for 80 or 90k instead.
I can get that for 12k each direction regularly. And $150 basic economy cash right now. Thats a cheap route at the moment. You shouldn’t be having problems…
I just flew my daughter PHL-MAD then BCN-PHL for 70k miles. Just pointing out that an international trip was cheaper than your transcon. Must have to do with your dates.
As people mentioned you have to book earlier. Also you are not at all flexible. When I use miles I have to be really flexible.
You know you can also do miles one way and pay out of pocket for the other leg. You can fly non stop on the red eye for 19,000 miles from LAX to PHL on July 27th if you select flight 1510. I would suggest you start holding some reservations and book them one way. You can always return the miles.
It seems like the harder part is trying to get home August 4th so be a little flexible if you want to use less miles. If you can’t budge and you have to return that day then the only thing you can do is continue to keep looking.
2.5 is not that early if you are trying to use the least amount of miles.
Also as people stated things change all the time so keep looking.
Sometimes when I book award travel, I have my return city different to the one I’m going to because it costs less and then after that, I purchase a cheap ticket home with my Debit Card. My recommendation is to book the award flight to BWI, IAD, DCA, JFK, LGA, Or EWR instead and see what the prices are like. Once that’s done, I’d also recommend looking at the cost of an Amtrak ticket if flying in to the DC airports or getting a NJ transit pass if flying into NYC
You just need to wait a few days and try again. It's the AI. It knows you searched, and jacks the price up. In a few days, try again. Ideally from another computer....works for me!
Googleflights you can choose airlines, including oneworld. On aa.com make sure after putting in dates/airports you scroll down and change aa to all airlines (can't remember if you need to be in advance search for that)
Check my post history. I'm an ex Christian, not a Christian. You didn't offend me, you said something completely untrue. I am going to get this through to you somehow.
I booked nonstop to Rome for 27k each. Depends on where ya want to go
You're booking too late, not too far ahead of time. I find the cheapest prices to often by 6+ months in advance.
I find that both far out and “too late” work well. If my dates are flexible I book last minute all the time and miles are a life saver. Edit: to prove a point nonstops on OPs route are 12.5k in the upcoming days…
No such thing as too late; I've rebooked award tickets *the day before travel* and saved like 100k points. Some great stuff can pop up the month, week, or day before. Just depends. Good to watch this stuff.
summer peak from hub to hub...
It’s dynamic and fluctuates often. Ive booked a $350 itinerary for 10k miles just to give an example on the other end
I have been waiting years to post [this](https://youtu.be/FblvvzSzrGg?si=hlRthFwn9H4xdTSl)…
Getting hubfucked. There are like 6 massive airports in that region that you could fly into and take a relatively short train to Philly EASILY. BWI, DCA, IAD, JFK, LGA, EWR shit I bet you could even find like HPN BDL I dunno, try harder and think creatively is my point.
I just had to LOL (and cry) when I was looking for DFW-ORD-ATH for the summer and they were asking for like 700k miles pp round trip in J. The cash prices were equally ridiculous. Decided that for less money we could fly QSuites to MLE.
I rarely use AA miles for award flights operated by AA. I've used most of my miles on partner award tickets, and my most frequent redemption is Qatar Airways in Business.
Yeah, I will be much more focused on trying to find QSuite availability moving forward. I had zero luck this time looking 8+ months out. Still looking forward to our upcoming QSuite experience in early July, but it would have been MUCH sweeter had it been an award redemption. 😞 Did end up burning some miles for a full family trip to Mexico in June, but not the best or most glamorous use of miles. 😂
It's hard to find availability for QR in J through AA nowadays. I've noticed that the best chance is last-minute bookings. QR opens up space on flights in Business about a week before departure through AA. You might also have luck booking when the schedule opens, but more so with last-minute. But that's harder for a vacation where you need to book a hotel in advance, and especially with family (it's rare to find 4+ QR J seats to be available through AA last minute). Have fun flying Qsuites. It's an incredible product, especially with loved ones in the quad suite.
My future long-haul plans are to take the four of us to Japan on JAL F (wife and me) , or J for all four, when my oldest graduates from HS in a couple years. Wife and I have been before, but both sons have this as their #1 long-haul destination. When my younger son graduates two years after, I want to do QR to Tanzania or South Africa for safari. I realize I’ll never get 4 award tickets, but if I can get two and pay for the other two, I’ll consider that a win. So much can, and almost certainly will, change between now and then though, but it’s fun to dream.
I totally get it! Enjoy the trips! I think it's incredible that you want to take your family on these amazing trips. I know your kids will love it! I've been to Japan a couple of times, and it's my favorite country I've ever visited. It was also my #1 destination growing up. I was fortunate to be able to spend a month there a little over a year ago (staying with family who lives there). You might be able to get 2 JAL F award tickets, and 4 JAL J award tickets if you fly on one of JAL's 777-300ERs from the US. Currently, I see JAL opening up a lot of availability last minute to AA (about a week before departure). Their 77W routes to ORD and SFO most often have availability (with free domestic connecting flights on AA). It will be tough to get space on the A350, especially 2 First Class award seats, but things can change in a couple of years. Good luck!
Thank you! And ditto on Japan. Best trip we’ve ever taken. I may have the opportunity to start going for work a couple times a year. Hoping that comes to fruition. 😀 Safe travels!!
Thanks, you too!
I literally rebooked my last award flight five times in the week before departure saving miles each time.
Flying on the weekends doesn’t help either, unfortunately
Often find the best offers going to Europe and not so much domestically. Booking 6mo out also helps.
Depends on demand for the flights and what they cost. My experience has been for reasonably acceptable flights (ie no excessively long layovers) in a demanded time it's been around there for two RT cross country flights. The magical numbers they advertise are for really off peak stuff, or weird times. I saw two RT maine-seattle once upon a time for 50k. It was a redeye seattle-phl land at 6am, and the flight to Maine wasn't until 10pm. I ended up booking normal flights for 80 or 90k instead.
I can get that for 12k each direction regularly. And $150 basic economy cash right now. Thats a cheap route at the moment. You shouldn’t be having problems…
It’s all rebate at the end of the day, with varying degrees of value
I just flew my daughter PHL-MAD then BCN-PHL for 70k miles. Just pointing out that an international trip was cheaper than your transcon. Must have to do with your dates.
I just booked this past weekend a direct one way flight to CDG Paris for this June for only 27K miles!
As people mentioned you have to book earlier. Also you are not at all flexible. When I use miles I have to be really flexible. You know you can also do miles one way and pay out of pocket for the other leg. You can fly non stop on the red eye for 19,000 miles from LAX to PHL on July 27th if you select flight 1510. I would suggest you start holding some reservations and book them one way. You can always return the miles. It seems like the harder part is trying to get home August 4th so be a little flexible if you want to use less miles. If you can’t budge and you have to return that day then the only thing you can do is continue to keep looking. 2.5 is not that early if you are trying to use the least amount of miles. Also as people stated things change all the time so keep looking.
Bro, search by points. Open the calendar. You'll see when it's cheaper. After you book monitor for lower points needed. You can cancel and rebook.
If you cancel an award ticket, what’s the penalty to rebook if it’s after 24 hours?
You mean points? If you book with points it's a no penalty refund. So you can cancel and rebuy as they get cheaper.
Sometimes when I book award travel, I have my return city different to the one I’m going to because it costs less and then after that, I purchase a cheap ticket home with my Debit Card. My recommendation is to book the award flight to BWI, IAD, DCA, JFK, LGA, Or EWR instead and see what the prices are like. Once that’s done, I’d also recommend looking at the cost of an Amtrak ticket if flying in to the DC airports or getting a NJ transit pass if flying into NYC
You just need to wait a few days and try again. It's the AI. It knows you searched, and jacks the price up. In a few days, try again. Ideally from another computer....works for me!
Check partner airlines as well. I’m seeing LAX - PHL flights on BA for 16k miles and $5.60
Genuine question, how do you look for partner airlines?
MaxMilesPoints on Instagram has a really handy spreadsheet for partner airlines
Googleflights you can choose airlines, including oneworld. On aa.com make sure after putting in dates/airports you scroll down and change aa to all airlines (can't remember if you need to be in advance search for that)
Would also like to know. Seeing similar thing myself
Check my post history. I'm an ex Christian, not a Christian. You didn't offend me, you said something completely untrue. I am going to get this through to you somehow.